Massively Effected: An Unlikely Hero
by Daminxx
Summary: My first SI! Need I say more? Come and tag along on my wild ride through the Mass Effect universe . . . you wont regret it.
1. Intro

**Dear Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect franchise, Bioware, or any of it's subsidiaries (but we can all dream can't we?). I also want to make a special note to all viewers that this is not only my first SI, but also my first time ever submitting anything into , so I'm really excited to see how it turns out! Lastly, I would like to send out my sincere thanks and appreciation to Sarge1995 who was my main inspiration for this. He's a damn talented writer, people, so check out his stuff if you ever get the chance!**

**Note: Oh, and, I apologize beforehand if the Intro's a bit dull. I just wanted to make sure I really fleshed out the main character (that's me!), so just bare with me here.**

INTRO.

If your reading this, than you either know me, or are about to. Whatever the case, understand this: you have just picked up a compilation of self-written journals by me, describing past events over the course of five long years. Everything you are about to read is the truth, carefully recorded and recounted up to the most specific of details. My name is Austin Miles*, and this is the story of how, in but the blink of an eye, my life changed forever.

As I look back on it now, it sure was a hell of an adventure. There were always moments where I had my doubts, of course. Often I found myself overwhelmed by indecision, and fear. The fear of failing those who I knew were counting on me to make the right choices. I experienced love, hatred, betrayal. I even came to know the unwelcome presence of regret. Yet, all in all, I'd say I did the best with what I was given, and always stayed true to my ideals.

But before I get ahead of myself, I'll start from the beginning, and by 'beginning,' I mean the very _very_ beginning. I originally grew up in a small rural town in southwest Oregon, a nice place called Springfield. It was a decent enough area I guess, quiet and homey, considering it had recently been plagued by a string of violent robberies. The police linked the crimes to the notorious meth-heads that Oregon was known for, but no one really seemed to care that much. Meth was one of the most addictive and destructive drug types known, and the underground market for it in the US (especially Oregon) had grown to a massive size ever since it's start-up in the 80's. Things like that happened all the time, especially since the state focused most of it's efforts on pursuing the less harmful, more recreational substances, marijuana and peyote, for example. But such is the system. Corrupt and inefficient.

That was part of the reason why my mom decided for us to move away, around when I was the tender age of nine. That, and the sudden divorce which had financially crippled her. My father, a man that I can barely picture any more, was nothing more than a selfish liar. As a high-school drop out he had little interest in family life, still caught up in the glory days of his past youth. It wasn't that much of a surprise really when he announced his wish for permanent separation. My mother was beside herself, but she reluctantly agreed. She gained full custody of me and he was assigned a regular annual payment of child support. He didn't even ask the judge for visitation rights.

Not long after, we moved to the east to go stay with my maternal grandmother in upper Michigan. A woman equal parts kind and strict, she became my primary parenting unit while my mom worked tirelessly day and night as a bank accountant. She guided me and scolded me when necessary, and gave me the parenting my father never would, and my mother couldn't spare.

Time passed slowly during that period, nothing ever truly assured. I transferred from one school to the next until finally we found a place for me to settle down. Lakeside High school, a large, reputable place with plenty of opportunity for me to make new friends, which my mother and grandmother urged me to pursue. Due to the nature of my mostly confined childhood I found it difficult to fit in with the other kids. I considered few of the people there to be actual acquaintances, and even fewer still as friends.

Throughout my freshman and sophomore years I did find great pleasure in the available sports programs, particularly wrestling and cross-country. The appeal was less related to the social aspect as it was the sense of accomplishment. The physical exertion was simple and to the point, but the knowledge afterward, that you were able to finish successfully despite the difficulty, despite the pain, gave me a satisfaction I couldn't get anywhere else. Also I loved being able to see my progress as an athlete, to look back at the hurdles I overcame, which gave me encouragement to face the harder ones still to come.

At around the end of my second year at Lakeside I began to develop a newly found interest in writing. The ability to express yourself in words (and in as many of them as you wanted) was something I found to be amazing, even freeing. It allowed me to sort out all of my troubles and desires and ambitions, and gave my mind a much needed reprieve from the day to day. Eventually, my desire to write branched out into new horizons, most prominently among them being poetry and journalism.

In the summertime of the sixteenth year of my life, I devoted much of my new free-time to writing and pondering. On some days I would write about the beautiful simplicity of insects or the trees, while on other days I would write great texts on far more controversial subjects, such as the creation of the universe, or whether or not life beyond our own inhabited it.

But that's all beside the point. So anyway, one morning, while reading through a small internet forum discussing the probability of our sun going supernova, I noticed someone make an unusual reference to a game that I had never heard of before, "Mass Effect". Jokingly, they said that the implosion of our sun actually wouldn't be that bad, because then we would be able to harvest 'eezo' particles that would enable us to travel to different solar systems. I asked the forum member about Mass Effect, what it was exactly, and from there he began to enthusiastically describe an rpg of epic proportions. Decidedly intrigued, I bought a PC version of the game a week later, just to see if it truly was as fun as he claimed.

To my pleasant surprise, I was blown away. I had never been much for gaming beforehand, but this was enough to make me a believer. This action rpg combined a sci-fi universe with key role playing elements that manifested into a truly awesome gaming experience. The diversity of alien species, the fun plot and gameplay, and the overall originality of it was just UN-freakin-believable, for lack of a better term. However, amongst all it's great qualities, the real reason I found it so immersive was, well, just that. Through Mass Effect you could plunge into an entirely alien, yet not wholly different, universe. You could become a paragon of justice, looked up to by others, or a ruthless renegade, feared by all but the foolish. It was far more than a game, it was an alternate reality where the most powerful tool of all was yours to wield. The power of choice.

From there the rest is pretty much history. I finished Mass Effect on multiple playthroughs and even went on to buy it's sequel, Mass Effect 2, which, I might add, was equally bad-ass. The rest of that summer I mostly spent replaying through Mass Effect, and writing, here and there. I couldn't have known, though, that that unsuspecting game would soon alter my reality in ways I could never have imagined. Even now I can't say whether it was for better or for worse. So here it goes. Your about to read the craziest story you're gonna hear in a long time.

And so it begins . . .

**A/N: Well that's it for the intro! I really hope you all enjoyed it. And yes, that's basically my life's story. I plan on continuing further so long as I get enough interested readers. If not then I'll trash it and do something different. Like I said before the intro didn't have a lot of action in it, but then again that wasn't really the point. I promise the next chapter will have a LOT more going on though. And I can't stress enough that constructive criticism is always appreciated. Post a review anytime. A little input goes a long way! Keelah Se'lai!**

***My last name has been changed, for obvious reasons.**


	2. Journal 1

**A/N: Here's the first chapter. Finally! This last week has been pretty busy with school and everything, so I'd like to thank you all for being patient with me. From now on I plan on submitting a new journal entry every week, if I can. And I really appreciate the encouraging reviews I've gotten, they've all been mostly considerate and even a little insightful. Now let's get down to business. As I mentioned before, here's where everything's gonna start to pick up so, just, brace yourselves.**

Journal #1.

I was barely thirty minutes into the playthrough when a sudden flash of light zipped across the sky, sending a brief splurge of white through the window and into my room. I quickly tore my eyes away from the computer, my gaze drawn toward the unexpected interruption.

Streaks of rain drops fluttered down the side of the window pane, disappearing under the edge of the sill as quickly as they had arrived. A harsh wind buffeted the side of the house, howling as if to be let in. A second later a monstrous bellow of thunder roared from outside, the house almost seeming to shudder at the sound, though I chalked that up to just wild imagination.

Dam, the storm had really picked up from this morning. I knew that it was supposed to be bad and all but this was just beastly. The news anchors were starting to report blackouts and communication failures across the county, warning people to stay indoors and even avoid driving if they could. The hurricane had supposedly began far to the east, near New York, then slowly gathered in size and speed as it started moving, westbound. In less than a day it had already reached Michigan.

I got up from my spot near the desk where my computer sat, stretching my back as I did so. Tired of hearing the weather's boasting I strode over to the window and closed it firmly, immediately shutting out the downpour. A low whimpering made me turn around, and I spotted Marley's shaggy form hiding underneath my bed. She had a worried look in her eyes and continued to whimper when she realized I saw her. She had always hated thunder, ever since a fourth-of-July display traumatized her as a pup.

"Hey girl, come here," I told her. "It's ok." Her ears raised at the sound of my voice and reluctantly she skittered out from underneath her hovel. I scratched her behind the ears as she approached, as I always did, trying to reassure her. "Don't worry, it's just an electrical storm. It'll pass." Her tale waved back and forth slightly, and she leaned into me for comfort. I patted her side gently, stroking her fur for awhile.

She was an old lab now and her hair was starting to get that gruff feel that came with age. I could remember when we first got her, crawling through some garbage cans on the side of the street, frighteningly thin. I had called her over to me, trying to lure her in with a small piece of steak we had bought from the mini-mart. As soon as she jumped into the car and gulped it down she never made any move to leave. So we took her in, fed her, and before long my grandmother and I fell in love with her. To this day she was still grateful to us, always loyal, and sweet, too.

"Go on, Marley," I said, and she patted off to her bedroll in the corner of the room, curling up into a tight ball. I walked on back toward my desk and removed the charger from my computer, carrying it with me as I hopped onto my small bed. I had outgrown it years ago but it was all we could afford for now, and besides, it was still pretty comfortable despite it's size.

Returning my attention back to the game, I exited out of the menu screen and resumed playing, my character marching out of the lavishly decorated interior of the Citadel embassy.

Ah, Mass Effect, it truly was one of the greatest and most profound videogames I had ever played, albeit that number being very, very few. I had already completed it multiple times of course, now I was just playing it for fun, upping the difficulty to Insanity for a _real _challenge. Since ME3's reveal this summer I had been practically gushing with anticipation and had just recently started up my old ME1 playthrough, to try and stay my enthusiasm. It only partially worked.

I moved out of the embassies and briskly jogged along one of the bridges that stretched across the Presidium Lakes. Eventually I found what I was looking for, one of the many public transit vehicles that could be found throughout the station. I walked up to the access terminal and selected one of the ward options, dubbed 'Markets'.

The infamous loading screen of the Citadel appeared then, an absolutely gorgeous vista of the arms spread out like the mighty fingers of god himself. Specks of light flecked across their surfaces indicated life. The glowing orb that was the Widow floated out in the beyond, illuminating the heavenly dust clouds that seemed to engulf the great station. I had seen it all a thousand times before, yet it still inspired that same sense of wonder whenever it appeared. I waited patiently for it to finish the loading process.

That's when the explosion occurred.

A burst of sound and light overwhelmed my senses in an instant, blinding me as if a flash-bang grenade had just detonated in my room. My body literally surged upward as I jumped a foot from my bed in surprise. I landed back onto the mattress ungracefully, the weak frame creaking in complaint. My eyes snapped open, startled, as every muscle I had tensed in but a split second. I had no thought other than survival as my fight-or-flight instinct kicked into gear.

I lay crouched there for a few moments, surrounded in total darkness, unsure of what to do. The lights had gone out, I noted. I could feel my heart throbbing vigorously within my chest, my whole being still shocked from from the unexpected occurrence. What in the hell was _that_?

Slowly, my pulse began to calm itself as I took in a breath of air to clear my head. It was then I noticed Marley was barking, though at what I couldn't say. I squinted my eyes in a vain attempt to see if something was there, but I couldn't make out a thing. Lightning must have hit the house, from the storm. Probably struck the circuit breaker. And now we didn't have any power. That's just great.

Marley continued with her outburst, unrelenting. "Marley, quiet," I commanded her firmly, but she paid me no heed. I was about to tell her again when, all of a sudden, I heard an unusual noise. A short beep, followed by a long buzzing. I tilted my head at the strange sound, listening for it. The buzzing continued on, growing higher in pitch. There was definitely something there. Marley's growls turned into an almost savage snarling, and from what I could hear I guessed she hadn't left her bedroll.

The slightest flicker of light caught my attention then, just by the edge of my bed. I leaned over cautiously and looked down to see my computer lying right side up. I realized that in all the excitement I had accidentally dropped it on the floor, like an idiot. As I looked it over it seemed undamaged, in fact it was still on, the screen emitting a dim but present light amidst the blackness. I grabbed it carefully and placed back onto the bed with me. Surprisingly, it seemed to be the source of the buzzing. The screen no longer displayed the game, however. No, it showed something entirely different.

I gaped at it in confusion as, instead of Mass Effect, I saw thousands of lines of code, racing up and down it's surface as they wildly chased one another. Uncountable levels of numbers and symbols flashed before me, their pace quickening systematically with the rising pitch of the buzzing. Now _that_ is just not not normal. I jerked my head somewhat when I spotted a brief image appear and then disappear on the screen. Somewhere from the Presidium it looked like. That, also, is not normal. It happened again, and again, each time revealing a different picture from some random area in the game. I shook my head in hopeless bewilderment. What was happening here?

The buzzing that had once been a mild tone was now piercingly loud, drowning out both thought and sound, even quieting Marley's vicious bellows. I cringed uncomfortably as it mercilessly stabbed into my inner eardrum. The sporadic motions of the code flew by faster than could be detected and the images were blinking along so quickly now that they all fused together into a singular, conglomeration of 'things', resembling no clear location. I wasn't curious anymore, now I was just disturbed. I reached out desperately for the power button, feeling along the edge of it with one hand as I blotted out the oppressive light of the computer with the other. With relief, I found the button and pressed down on it heavily.

A second later I wished I hadn't. Pain, searing, crippling pain, shot out from the laptop into my hand, traveling up the length of my arm until it hammered into a central point in the back of my head. I let out a wordless cry as my head jerked backwards. All was blotted out. Taste, touch, sound, sight, and smell, rendered practically obsolete as raw energy coursed it's way through the fragile connections in my inner cortex.

I felt my body being lifted up from the bed as some unknown force suddenly took hold of me. The last thing I remember was a final burst of light that overwhelmed all others, and something that I swear sounded just like a mass relay jump. Then I felt myself jolt forward, my limp body flying through the air for a brief moment, until it smashed against the flat, hard surface of the ground.

Then all faded into darkness.

**LBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLB LBLBLBLBLBLB**

I'm not sure how long I had spent unconscious. For all I know it could have been a few minutes or a couple of hours. Time had a funny way of escaping you when your knocked out cold. The only thing that I was really aware of at that moment was the splintering headache that I had woken up to.

My hands immediately shot up to my temples as I tried to soothe the aching. God, it was like someone was drilling needles into the back of my skull and out through my eyes. I rubbed my fingers in a tight circular motion, the pain starting to recede somewhat.

Once it had subsided to a mostly tolerable level I began to look about my surroundings, trying to get my bearing's straight. There was little light available but just enough for me to make out the environment. Well that's weird. It looked like I was in some kind of narrow city passage way, but other than the layout it didn't resemble any kind of alley that I had ever seen. Instead of the brick wall foundations and lines of garbage bags and waste bins that I was used to, I found myself in a worn metal passage, large buildings towering above me from either side. They seemed to be constructed of some type of thick ceramic layer of white, appearing highly modernized.

I also realized that everything here was actually pretty clean, no slops of filth or signs of serious wear. Maybe I wasn't in the city after all. But, where then?

As my eyes traveled up I came to see an opening amidst the massive buildings, a purple sliver of light that delicately shown down into the alleyway. It must have been the sky, early-morning if I was any judge.

Maybe I had been kidnapped the night before? But who would want to mess with me like that, and why bring me here? I pushed myself up slowly, using the wall beside me as a support. Right when I stood myself straight a wave of light-headedness overcame me. I gagged slightly as I managed to keep myself from losing my lunch. Crap. Was I hit by a truck or something?

I took a moment to settle myself, then froze as I heard noises coming down from the end of the alley. I craned my neck and stared down the seemingly endless passage to see yet another light, like that at the end of a tunnel. There must be people there. They could help me, let me use a phone or give me a ride. It was certainly better than just sitting here and wasting away.

I began walking toward the light and sounds uncertainly, my steps gradually becoming more sure as I regained my footing. A few paces in and I no longer had to clutch at the wall. As I got closer the light seemed to take on new and varying colors, and I could recognize the sounds as voices and street chatter. Definitely people.

I lifted my arm defensively as the growing beam began to irritate my unadjusted eyes. Now I could hear a cacophony of voices, crowds, and the distinct rush of heavy traffic. A surge of anticipation pushed me along the last few steps until I cleared the alleyway at last.

The instant I saw the scene before me I stop dead in my tracks, unable to go any further.

No. Freakin'. Way.

Crowds upon endless crowds of aliens, I'll say again, _aliens,_ were walking past me, mere inches away. Everything I had been worrying about before vanished into thin air as I watched in silent disbelief. Going to and fro, the mass of alien bodies went about their business, all armed with various assortments of claws and mandibles and tentacles and scales. Some had the look of distinguished businessmen while others reminded me of lowly carpet merchants. Nevertheless, all were equally alien and remarkable.

Dozens of shops and storefronts lined the expansive street, with all manner of blinking signs and shouting advertisements. I looked up slightly and saw a steady flow of traffic whizzing above me, thousands of levitating sky cars speeding off toward unknown destinations. Even farther beyond them I could see a gargantuan structure that held an ocean-like array of tiny lights, blinking specks that moved with each other in cohesion. As I looked on at these incredible sights, in awe and in terror, I came to an impossible conclusion: I was on the Citadel, in Mass Effect.

**A/N: Duh-duh-duh-dummmm! The arrival!**

**So what did you guys think? Was it detailed enough, or did it come out overly pedantic? ****Readable or tacky? Post a review and let me know.**

**Keelah Se'lai!**


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